What do you do after eighteen years of selflessly bringing up your children when they suddenly leave home? Do you see it as a huge opportunity to do the things that you have always wanted or is there just a vast empty hole in your home and in your heart? This is the question that Nina Bell poses in her fabulous new book, ‘The Empty Nesters‘.

Laura, Clover and Alice have been friends ever since their children started school together. Now they have all left for university and the mothers are feeling slightly adrift. Having no children at home feels very strange for Clover and she worries what is left for her and her husband George, especially as they don’t seem to have anything to talk about these days. Laura still wants to mother her son Jamie and cannot come to terms with the fact that he wants his independence. Also, she and husband Tim are openly hostile towards each other and have been ever since he admitted to an affair a few years previously. It’s only Alice who, having always been a career woman, does not notice much difference although strangely she seems to take more interest in her daughter Lola, now at Oxford, than she did in the past. The three women’s lives seem to become more complex rather than easier and they also notice strains in their own friendships no longer having their children to bind them.

It’s time to let go of the past and move forward, making life changing decisions along the way. But you never know what fate has got lined up for you as they are all about to find out, especially Laura and Tim. Hit by the worst possible health problems. Suddenly there are conflicts and confrontations and a few home truths to deal with and the chance to do something different with their lives.

“It is a most satisfying read and I will definitely be reading more of Nina Bell’s books in the future.”

‘The Empty Nesters‘ is a beautifully written book that is both amusing and poignant. Nina Bell deals with the whole empty nest prospect most sensitively that makes it really easy to feel what the main characters are feeling. I really liked Laura and Clover and felt that I got to know them very well by the end of the book. I didn’t like Alice much but I don’t think that I was meant to! There are a host of other ’empty nesters’ too who were quite entertaining in different ways. I particularly liked the Baxters who decided to up sticks and trek around the world after their children left home. Every so often the reader was treated to a ‘baxterblog’ chronicling what they were getting up to on various continents.

‘The Empty Nesters‘ has a great pace and a few different storylines that are absorbing and intriguing. There is one storyline in particular, involving Laura, that will definitely keep you guessing. I felt that through this, Nina Bell was teasing her readers, but in a very good natured way! I found it to be perfect reading and it was the sort of book that I did not want to put down. It is a most satisfying read and I will definitely be reading more of Nina Bell’s books in the future.

The Empty Nesters by Nina Bell
Published by Sphere, September 2011
Thanks to Sphere for sending a review copy.

No Comments on "The Empty Nesters"

Hi guest, please leave a comment:

My name is Jo and I have been married to Simon for nine years. We have two beautiful daughters – Rachel who is six and Natalie who is almost five and starting school in January. I also have two step children aged twenty one and seventeen so family life is never dull.
I also manage to work three days for a local education authority where I support the teaching of literacy in primary schools. I love my job and it’s ideal for a book lover like me. In my spare time I run, dance and occasionally tread the boards with my local amateur dramatics group. My first love is reading though and you will never find me without a book on the go. My husband is also an avid reader and we are hoping to pass on our love of reading to our daughters. They certainly love their bedtime stories every night.
Although I have and English degree and I am familiar with most of the classics, I generally read much lighter stuff these days. It’s mainly ‘chic lit’ but I also enjoy a good thriller or courtroom drama. I have so many favourite authors and this list tends to change regularly depending on what I am reading.